disband

Attested since the 1590s, from Middle French desbander (Modern French débander), from des- (English dis-) + bande (English band),[1] ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰendʰ- (“to tie”). Surface analysis dis- +‎ band.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪsˈbænd/

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• Rhymes: -ænd

disband (third-person singular simple present disbands, present participle disbanding, simple past and past participle disbanded)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To break up or (cause to) cease to exist; to disperse.

   The president wanted to disband the scandal-plagued agency.

   I used to be in a punk band, but we disbanded in the early 1980s.

   • 1603, Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes, […], London: […] Adam Islip, OCLC 837543169:

     Having taken a review of his Army at Ardachan, he disbanded his Army, and he himself continu'd his Journey to Erzirum

2. (transitive, obsolete) To loose the bands of; to set free.
3. (transitive, obsolete) To divorce.
   • 1644, J[ohn] M[ilton], The Doctrine or Discipline of Divorce: […], 2nd edition, London: [s.n.], OCLC 868004604, book:

     And therefore […] she ought to be disbanded.

• disbandment

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